The True Darkness of Distrust

This piece was published in advance of a sermon about trust on 2/13/11

the true darkness of distrust

Trust is a slippery word. I trust my teenage son, but I'm not going to leave him unsupervised with matches and flammables. I trust in our political system but I surely don't believe every politician. I trust my business partner but we still maintain good accounting records. The phrase "trust, but verify" describes the kind of trust I'm talking about.

But what about when it comes to trusting God? We can't "supervise" God. We can't verify all things we supposedly entrust to God, but can only hope that one day we'll be able to verify that we were right to trust God. I suppose you'd also call this faith.

is that a "sunday school" answer?

When the Psalmist says, "when I am afraid, I put my trust in you" (56.3), I'm left wondering how do I do that? In the midst of real fear, real tragedy, or real suffering, how exactly do I trust in God? I get frustrated when I'm told, "Just trust God more, everything will be fine," even though I've used the line myself. Does that line mean I need to pray more? Read my Bible more? Do more good deeds to get God's attention? I have to be satisfied to "trust, but not verify" because it is only over time that we can look backward, see what God has done, and believe that God is a God of consistency and will see us through the next big thing.

finding solid ground

The best I can tell you is that trusting God is rather like standing at the water line on a beach as the tide sucks the sand from beneath your feet. You know there's terra firma somewhere down there, but you have to get buried to your calves to find it. You keep on sinking until you find a place to stand. So maybe trusting God is about standing still long enough to let your soul sink into the truth of God. And maybe trusting God is not about doing more, but simply being more present to the God in the moments of life. Maybe trusting God more is not about gathering doctrines or truths to be our firm place to stand, but about emptying ourselves of self through worship, even if that worship looks like wailing despair.

I hope you'll join us for worship on Sunday, where we'll think about this more in a sermon called The True Darkness of Distrust.

It'll be great.

Trust me,
Pastor Gary

Long Story, Short - February 4, 2011

conflict - can't live with it, can't live without it The forward progress of humankind is forged from conflict. Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen verify that. So did Steve Underwood, my high school US History teacher. His wonderful classroom antics imprinted history on my brain like few other teachers. He had "one-sided phone conversations" with dead presidents. He wore crazy costumes to teach about key battles. But the greatest thing he taught me is that without conflict there is no creativity. With conflict there is no forward motion. Without conflict, nothing happens. Sometimes conflict is broad based, like the national conflict prevalent in this week's news from Cairo. Sometimes the conflict is isolated, internal to an individual. But whether you're in the classroom, the work place, or the church sanctuary, conflict is and eventuality in all relationships. Spouses will argue. Siblings will get angry. Workmates will offend you. Fellow Christians will anger you - and you them. The question for Christians is not if we'll have conflict, but what we'll do when it comes our way. meek and mild? Unfortunately, Christians tend to shirk from conflict, especially in church, and often to the detriment of all. Perhaps we've overemphasized the "meek" side of Jesus without understanding the way he brought conflict to bear meaning. Or maybe we back away because we don't want to be trouble makers, characterized like those other trouble makers we've known. Or maybe we avoid conflict because we just don't care enough. Sometimes caring necessitates confrontation. conflict doesn't just go away The Bible assumes conflict is a part of reality, and Jesus teaches directly about how Christians should deal with conflict in Matthew 18.15-20. It involves face to face honesty, genuine openness, and a willingness to stick with the persons involved in conflict until a resolution is reached. We'll discuss this in depth in this Sunday's sermon, and I hope you'll walk away with some Jesus-like strategies for dealing with the conflicts you've been avoiding See you Sunday, Pastor Gary